


Worlds Together, Worlds Apart

by Gryffie, Kibu



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crossover, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-19 08:39:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2382008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryffie/pseuds/Gryffie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kibu/pseuds/Kibu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud thought that taking in Roxas would be a good thing. There was no way that he could have known what it would bring to his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Second Chances

**Author's Note:**

> This is very much a work of fiction. I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to their respective owners and I am definitely not making any claim on them. Originally I had this posted in parts, and decided to change that and post them all as chapters in the same document instead.

Cloud waiting at the ferry dock that connected the mainland with the Destiny Islands. He sat on the hood of the of old truck that he borrowed from Angeal and kept his eyes on the peninsula for the ferry. Part of him couldn’t quite believe that he was doing this… again. But after talking to Edea at the orphanage Cloud knew what he had to do. He sighed at himself, admitting that he’d always had a soft spot for kids that had been given a hard time in life.

It was partially why he’d adopted Kairi after all… well that and Sora and Riku begging for their friend not to go away.

And now there was another kid that needed a home and Cloud offered his. Most people wouldn’t look at Cloud Strife and automatically say that he looked like a family man, the kind who would make a good father. No… that would probably be the last thing people would say. Yeah, he wasn’t the warmest person in the world. He wasn’t the person that you went to with your sob story expecting any sort of sympathy. But Cloud knew what it was like to have a tough life so he could sympathize and he knew that things could get better for them.

Which was why he was here, waiting for another kid to let into his life. This one though wasn’t little like Kairi had been. When he’d officially adopted Kairi she’d been about 6 and that had been a real learning experience. No, this was a kid who was into the really difficult teenage years and just needed some stability in his life.

Cloud looked at the file that Edea had given him about the boy. There weren’t any pictures of him, which surprised Cloud, but Edea had given it to Cloud on the sly so she probably couldn’t get everything in there. She had said that this one was the most difficult case she’d been trying to get fixed and the reasons why were all in the file. The poor kid had started out in the orphanage here in Destiny Town but because of the screwed up system, he’d been shipped to the mainland and away from a twin brother. Cloud scanned down the page with an annoyed frown looking at each of the cities that he’d live in his fourteen years of life, the different homes, sometimes moving him between as many as five different homes in year. Cloud closed the file in disgust; it just made him angry to read it. This is why kids in the system ended up in trouble, dropped out of school or wound up in jail. They weren’t given any control or say over their lives.

It wasn’t too long before the ferry came in sight of the dock as it rounded the peninsula and even less time before it was docking. Cloud at least knew who he was bringing the boy over, a woman named Hilda who he’d met at Edea’s orphanage before. It took a few moments for the people to begin filing off the large boat and Hilda seemed to be one of the last ones. She looked annoyed, carrying two large suitcases. She spotted Cloud and frowned more, heading to the edge of the parking lot where he waited.

He hopped off the hood of the truck, going over to grab one of the bags from her. There was no sign of any boy with her though. Seeming to read the searching gaze, Hilda sighed. “He’s coming,” she snorted. “Like all teenagers he does things when he’s ready to.” She leveled Cloud with a stern gaze as he began to put the bags in the back of the truck. “You better be ready for this kid, he’s a real trouble maker.” She turned to look behind her and rolled her eyes. “There he is… finally. ROXAS!” She bellowed and waived the boy over.

Cloud looked up and expected to see a sullen looking teenager, which he did, but what Cloud didn’t expect was for the boy to be the spitting image of him. Blonde haired, blue eyed, still a little bit of baby fat in his cheeks. Cloud looked at him, slightly dumbfounded; if he didn’t know better he’d have said the kid was his but that was completely impossible. He took a deep breath and calmed himself so he could really look at the teen. Studying him a little harder, Roxas didn’t have really many of Cloud features at least, but Cloud was still anticipating the flack he was going to get from the others at home, not to mention Kairi.

Roxas walked up to the truck taking his own time about it, which annoyed Hilda to no end. “I need to get back onto the ferry otherwise I’ll have to stay the night on this Podunk island.” She sighed, ignoring Cloud’s frown. “So I’ll make this quick. Roxas, this is Cloud, your new guardian. Cloud this is Roxas… your new teenager. I wish you well of each other.” She handed Cloud another folder of paperwork and nodded before running back to the ferry.

Cloud took a deep breath and let it out slowly looking over at Roxas and nodded in greeting. “Did you only have the two bags?” He asked. He didn’t make an assurances to the teen that he’d be happy with them, cause really Cloud had no idea if he would be or not and as he’d learned when he’d been going through shit in his life the last thing he wanted was for people to tell him that things were going to be ok when they had no idea.

“Yeah… that’s it and this,” Roxas said quietly, pulling the large backpack from his shoulder, sounding more like a zombie to Cloud than a teenager. Well no… Cloud corrected himself, just like a teenager.

“Let’s go then,” Cloud said with a nod as he put the backpack into the bed of the truck with Roxas’ suitcases before climbing into the truck cab. Roxas paused a moment, tight lipped as he looked around himself. Cloud could almost see the thought process going through the teen’s mind. Coming from a big city to these little islands, it could be tough.

Cloud rolled down the passenger side window. “There’s more to the island than just the ferry terminal,” he assured the teen. “Come on if you don’t believe me.” He started up the truck as the boy climbed in after only a moment of hesitation.

Roxas was quiet through most of the drive. Cloud went through the center of town so that Roxas could get a good look at least most of the area. He saw Roxas’ head perk slightly as the local burger place came into view and slowed, pulling into the parking lot. “I’m kind of hungry, mind if we stop?”

“Uh… yeah, sure,” Roxas replied, seeming more animated than he had before. Going inside, the burger place seemed to be the place to be, it was packed with people of all ages, but mostly teenagers. Cloud and Roxas got their orders and wove their ways through the crowd to get an empty table.

Roxas was the first one to break the silence between them. “You’re really different from the other fosters I’ve been with.” Cloud didn’t say anything in response, but he raised an eyebrow at Roxas curious as to what he meant.

The teenager shrugged in response. “You are. All the others have already been falling over themselves to be nice to me the moment they meet me, telling me that everything will be fine and that their home was mine and all that kind of stupid stuff. But you… haven’t done any of that. Why?”

“Because I don’t know that everything is going to be fine,” Cloud said honestly, leaning back away from the table. “I don’t believe in lying in that sort of way. I’ve been lied to that way and been through a lot of shit in my life. Sometimes when things are going badly, or at least when you think they are, the last thing you want is someone forcing happiness on you when you’re not ready to handle it. I’m fairly sure that you’ll be happy with my family, we’re fairly relaxed, but you’ll only be happy with us if you let yourself be and you decide to be.”

Roxas didn’t quite know what to say about that, none of the fosters before had been that honest with him. He’d expected the same treatment as everywhere else and this was definitely not. “Oh… so were you an orphan too?”

Cloud shook his head. “No… but I left home when I was younger than you are and I was on my own for a really long time.”

He and Roxas talked a little while they ate, but the topics were far lighter than how the conversation started. Neither of them really felt like the other wanted to talk serious for the moment. Cloud told Roxas about Kairi and some of things to see and do on the island. Roxas explained to Cloud about the game of Struggle and it was the small bonding that Roxas needed. No one jumping all over him to find out everything they could. Roxas liked that Cloud was just letting him be himself.

They headed back out to the truck once they were done eating.

As Cloud climbed back into the truck, a beat-up old van pulled into the spot on the other side of his truck. “I’m starving!” the driver was saying, jumping out of the van almost before it was fully parked. “C’mon man, can’t you stop texting for like five minutes?”

The driver was blond, wearing blue jeans that were cuffed at the ankles and two layered tank tops of black and blue. Judging by the artfully messy fauxhawk and sneakers without socks, clearly the teenager had his own take on style. He brushed past Roxas to hop up on the sidewalk next to the restaurant, but spun around with dramatic flair. “Hey! Wait a sec…do I know you?” he asked, eyes narrowed in concentration as he looked Roxas up and down.

The teenager paused and looked over at the taller boy with the strange hair. “Ahh… I don’t think so,” he said with a shake of his head. “I just moved here.” He glanced over at Cloud, who waited patiently and gave Roxas a nod to let him know there was no hurry.

“Oh. You look really familiar,” the guy said with a frown. Almost immediately, he snapped back to a mega-watt smile. “Anyway, hey.” He wiggled his fingers in something like a wave. “I’m Demyx. Who’re you?”

“Trust me, kid. You’re better off not knowing this loser.” The passenger of the van had finally come around the front, walking up beside Demyx. He ruffled a hand through his spiked red hair, even more punked out than his friend.

“Oh shut up, Lea.” Demyx laughed, elbowing the redhead.

“Uh,” Roxas smirked slightly with a small snort as he watched the other two boys interact. “I’m Roxas… Nice to meet you Demyx... uhh Lea,” he said with a nod to the redhead. He glanced over at Cloud who seemed to be on the phone in the truck.

“So is this the place to hang out around here?” He asked nodding towards the place.

“Axel,” the redhead corrected, directing it to both Demyx and Roxas. “And yeah, kinda. There are a few of them, but that’s it – town’s not that big. If you came here from civilization you’re in for some culture shock.”

“It’s kind of the ass end of nowhere,” Demyx agreed, wrinkling his nose. “Hard to be a struggling artist here. We still have a good time, though, and interesting stuff does happen sometimes. And I’m hungry, Axel. Wanna join us?” he asked Roxas.

“Ahh, maybe some other time,” Roxas smiled and glanced over at the truck. “Like I said I just move here… as in I haven’t even seen where I’m living yet,” he chuckled sheepishly. “Maybe I’ll see you two around if the town is as small as you say. So.. see yah,” he nodded at them with a wave and went over to the truck where Cloud waited.

“Are you ready?” Cloud asked, hanging up the phone and starting the engine as Roxas climbed into the cab.

“Yeah,” Roxas said with a hesitant smile, glancing over his shoulder at the two other teenagers. “Yeah, I think I am.”


	2. Settling In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very much a work of fiction. I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to their respective owners and I am definitely not making any claim on them.

Roxas stood on the balcony that led off of his new room, letting the wind blow his hair around as he stared at the ocean nearby as the sun slow sank, casting an orangey, red glow over everything. He and his friends always wanted to visit the beach, they made plans for it several times but things constantly fell through. Now here he was at the beach but they weren’t there.

Hayner, Pence and Olette might as well be on a different planet for as much as he was going to be able to see them. Olette might write to him if school work didn’t get in the way, but he didn’t expect the same out of Hayner and Pence. Hayner had been so angry that Roxas had to leave that he’d actually blamed it all on Roxas and they barely said goodbye to each other.

His mind briefly touched on Seifer, the other orphan had always ended up at the same place Roxas did, the same foster homes, the same orphanages. As much as they acted like they didn’t like each other in public, when they were home, whatever it happened to be at the time, they were the closest each other had to family. Roxas missed him more than he expected, finding out that this time that they were going to be permanently separated had led to things that neither of them expected between them. Roxas felt himself flush at the thought and had to shake his head and laugh. Neither of them would have done any of that if there was a chance of them living in the same place again.

All of it still seemed kind of surreal to Roxas, but then again any time he got moved around Roxas felt like some sort of zombie. Not really himself anymore he had to find a new self that would fit here. Brushing some of his hair from his eyes he frowned more and shook his head. “At least I shouldn’t have to worry about moving again,” he said to himself.

He glanced back at the window to his room, His stuff was still in bags, he hadn’t unpacked at all, just out of habit, and he kept part of his stuff packed. His case workers had a bad habit of moving him once he was settled in. It was hard, and he hated it, a part of his brain just didn’t accept that this was it. He’d finally been adopted after all these years and this was going to be his home and permanent spot, so long things worked out that is.

He glanced at the house and caught the reflection of himself in the window, a scrawny, morose looking blonde boy, with dead eyes. When had he started to look how he felt inside? Roxas quickly straightened and shook his head, to banish the thoughts there. No, this needed to stop, he cared enough about himself that he knew he needed to stop going down the road he was on. He’d seen too many others like him go down that road to things that killed them and like hell he was going to let himself be a statistic.

“Hey Roxas?” A voice called as the door from his room opened. Kairi, Cloud’s daughter, his new sister, came out onto the balcony with him, smiling cautiously. “Dad wanted me to let you know that dinner’s ready when you are.” She stayed in the doorway waiting for his response. Kairi glanced into the still mostly empty bedroom. “When it’s done, do you want some help unpacking? Might make the room feel more like home.”

Roxas was about to dismiss the idea completely and stopped himself. “Ahh, yeah actually,” he said and nodded. “That would be… great actually. Thanks.” He managed a small smile for Kairi who, looked surprised and smiled back.

“Yeah no problem,” she nodded and then playfully hit him in the arm. “Just don’t expect it all the time. We’re supposed to be siblings and they don’t always get a long right?”

A surprised laugh escaped from Roxas before he had a chance to hold it back as he rubbed his arm. “Ow geez starting with the sibling abuse already?” He asked with a laugh and ruffled up her hair, dashing down the stairs before she could catch him.

Roxas grinned as he glanced over his shoulder as she screeched indignantly started after him, laughing as well. If he was going to be stuck there he might as well make the most of it. He’d do it for himself though and not for anyone else.

________________

Dinner was quiet, which was expected. Cloud had denied Kairi from peppering Roxas with questions until at least until after dinner, and only if Roxas was okay with it. He was pleasantly surprised that so far she was sticking with it. He could tell that she was just bursting to ask him things, especially once they were done and starting to clear the table.

Roxas got up and helped without even being asked, taking what he could carry into the kitchen as they all worked together to clean up with very few words needing to be exchanged between any of them. It was almost if they’d been living together for a while and just immediately fell into sync with each other. It was a good sign, or at least Cloud was talking it that way.

Kairi caught Cloud’s eye as she and Roxas cleaned the dishes in the sink in the inquiring way. He knew what she wanted and shrugged. Really, he figured it was up to Roxas to answer the questions or not in the long run. Kairi gave him a bright grin before glancing covertly over at Roxas.

“So I’ll help you unpack when we’re done here,” she said scrubbing at one of the baking dishes, while Roxas wiped a plate dry. “If you don’t mind a girl helping.”

“Ok,” he nodded and put the plate down, picking up the next on the clean side of the sink. Roxas knew better than to give Kairi any sort of funny look about that. Olette had taught him well the way of girl-speak. “And I don’t mind, my friend Olette helped me pack up so none of it is things that a girl hasn’t seen already.”

Kairi nodded as her smile widened. “Oh good. So was Olette your girlfriend?”

“Huh?” Roxas paused a moment, the question was just too odd for him. “Ahh no, not at all. I mean she’s a girl and she’s my friend but not anything more than that. I’m not really into girls in that way,” he said honestly and then winced for a moment realizing that he’d just kind of ousted himself.

Though if it bothered Kairi she didn’t show it at all, she actually looked impressed. “Wow, so you actually admit it? There are some guys I know that I’m pretty sure bat for their own team but none of them will say a damn word about it,” She huffed as if this were a long standing topic that she’d been annoyed about for years. “It wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t so oblivious about it!” Kairi scrubbed excessively at one of the plates in annoyance before nearly shoving it into Roxas’ hands.

He chuckled in sympathy, knowing what she meant. “Yeah, I’ve got a couple of friends like that. Are yours at each other’s throats all the time?”

“No, they’re best friends,” Kairi winced and shook her head looking thankful that he at least sympathized. “In fact they are some of my best friends. We grew up together, but those two are always together in kind of the joined at the hip sort of way.” She handed Roxas a few more plates. “One I think is oblivious to it and the other I think is in denial, but you can tell me what you think when you meet them,” Kairi smiled. “They’re family and I know everyone in the family wants to meet you.”

“Kairi, let Roxas get settled,” Cloud warned. Roxas jumped forgetting that Cloud had been there, the man was so quiet. Roxas blushed faintly realizing that Cloud knew too that he was gay and hung his head looking away.

Cloud caught Roxas looking away and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “You won’t be judged in this house for that,” He said. Cloud could feel Roxas relax before he looked up and gave Cloud a smile.  
“Thanks,” Roxas said a little bashfully. “I mean I’ve known that I am for a while, but it’s something that I’ve always tried to keep quiet,” he said trailing off slightly as he put down the rag he’d been drying with. “Cause I mean most people don’t want to adopt a teenager, let alone one like me.”

Kairi smiled. “No reason to worry about that with us Roxas,” she agreed with a wide smile. “Uncle Zack and Uncle Angeal have been together for as long as I can remember. They’re really cool. Uncle Angeal taught us all how to fight when we were little like with swords and everything. He’d probably teach you too if you’d like. And Uncle Zack,” Kairi said trailing off as she thought of the right words and grinned. “Well, he’s kind of big doof but we like him anyway.”

Roxas looked between Cloud and Kairi with an awkward lopsided grin on his face. The inhibitions he’d felt before about being adopted by some unknown family were quickly dissipating. “So…” he chuckled. “What kind of family are we talking about?”

Cloud’s face went blank for a moment and glanced at Kairi then back at Roxas. “They aren’t technically family. Like I mentioned before, I don’t have any actual family. They’re old friends, we all escaped here from the same city and settled down.”

Roxas looked a little startled. Why would Cloud call it escaping somewhere? But Kairi continued talking before he could mention anything. Maybe it was just the way that Cloud talked.

“There are nine of us if you count me and Dad,” Kairi added. “Ten counting you. We always get together for dinners and parties and stuff. Aunt Aerith wanted to have a big party tonight to welcome you-“  
“But you need time to get settled,” Cloud finished. “They’re a good group of people, but they can be overwhelming all at once. Kairi can introduce you to Sora and Riku, if you’d like. It would be good for you to know some people your age before school starts next Monday.”

“Yeah, that would be cool,” Roxas nodded at the two of them feeling a little relieved. It was good to know that he wasn’t going to have to start up right away. He looked between Cloud and Kairi, who continued on cleaning and putting away the dishes. Kairi was still talking; Cloud would add things occasionally, but mostly stayed quiet and let Kairi talk. They both of them made sure to include him in on the conversation, explaining things when needed. It seemed so easy that they accepted him just like that. No walking on eggshells, no treating him like some sort of invalid like some families had done. Roxas just hoped that it wasn’t too good to be true.

“I think I might go up to my room and shower and then get to bed. I’m pretty tired out from today,” Roxas said as the final plates were put away. “Maybe you can help me unpack tomorrow Kairi?”  
“Sure thing,” Kairi nodded. “Just let me know when you’re ready to start tackling stuff.”

Roxas thanked her and bid the two of them good night before going back up to his room, wishing that there was a way to talk to his old friends.


	3. Starting off the Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very much a work of fiction. I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to their respective owners and I am definitely not making any claim on them.

Angeal started awake. In his dreams he’d been chased by Shinra artillery, but in reality it had been the thumping feet of a teenage boy running around upstairs. He took a deep breath and relaxed, glancing over at the other figure in the bed with a small smile and moved to curl around him.

“Hey Zack,” he said into the other man’s ear. “Your son is up. I think that means we have get up, too.” Angeal rested his head into the crook of Zack’s neck. He took a deep breath as he tried to shake off the rest of the sleepiness of waking up when really all he wanted was to stay right there.

"Just five more minutes," Zack groaned, at the same time stretching his arms and legs like a cat and pressing himself up against the solid wall of Angeal behind him. He let out a heavy, sleepy sigh when a loud thud of something landing hard on the floor above echoed down to them. "Okay... okay, I'm up," he said, smothering a yawn and struggling to sit up.

"What is he even doing up there? Jumping from the top bunk again?" Zack asked. He ran a hand through his spiky hair, making it stand up awkwardly in a few places.

“Nah,” Angeal replied as he reluctantly pulled away. “He’s smart enough not to do that anymore. I also think he’s nearly outgrown that bed.” Angeal sat up slowly and stretched with a groan as his back and shoulders popped in a few places. Getting out of bed he quickly pulled on a pair of sweatpants and an old, worn out tank top. “I’ll go get breakfast started so Aerith doesn’t,” he said, glancing over at Zack and wincing.

Even after all these years, it still sometimes took Angeal by surprise. Zack’s torso was covered in hundreds of scars - unforgiving mementos from when he had been gunned down by an entire army and left for dead. There were times where they still seemed to bother Zack; such as first thing in the morning. Zack was preoccupied with stretching, his muscles stiff from a night of disuse. Other times they didn’t seem to bother him at all, which made it easy to forget that they were there.

Angeal went over to Zack’s side of the bed and put a hand on the back of Zack’s head, pulling it towards him so he could plant a quick kiss on Zack’s forehead. “Take your time getting dressed, there will be food waiting for you,” he said and headed out of the room.

The main area of the house was one large room, the living room area and kitchen divided only by a large dining room table with mismatched chairs. Angeal wasn’t surprised to see Aerith sitting at the table already with her usual cup of tea. She was always the first of them up in the morning, tending the plants in her greenhouse. Angeal hadn’t expected to see Riku sitting next to her.

“You’re up early for the first day of your break,” Angeal commented as he headed to the kitchen to get breakfast together for everyone. “You and Sora have big plans?”

“You know my parents,” Riku said with a shrug. “Early risers no matter what day it is. I guess I ended up as something of a morning person whether I wanted to be or not.” There was a cup of tea in front of Riku as well, but it was completely untouched. From the smell of it, Angeal guessed that it was some of Aerith’s wheat grass and chicory tea. Riku got up quickly and followed Angeal into the kitchen. “Do you need a hand with anything?”

“I can help too if you need anything,” Aerith offered, looking over from the table.

Angeal turned away to hide his wince. “I’ve got it, Aerith. Thank you, though.” The last thing they all needed first thing in the morning was Aerith’s cooking. If he let her do it they’d end up having eggs cooked in yogurt with wheat germ and algae crunches or something like that. 

“Riku, why don’t you go and check on Sora? Find out why he was banging around so much this morning,” Angeal suggested. He could have given Riku a job to do but he really didn’t need the help, not like when the boys were little and just needed busy work.

Riku snorted. “It’s Sora. Does he need a reason?” Despite his words, he turned and headed for the stairs to the second level. Riku knew Sora’s family’s house as well as he knew his own; growing up, he’d spent just as much - or more - time with Zack, Angeal, and Aerith as he had with his own parents.

After making his way to Sora’s room, Riku knocked on the door and called through to him. “Hey, Sora! You gonna lie around all day or are we gonna do something?”

The door flew open to reveal a grinning Sora hopping on one leg as he tried to cram his foot into his shoe. “Hey Riku!” he said with a grin. “You’re here early. Uncle Tseng get you up at the crack of dawn again?” He put his leg down and stomped his foot on the floor to get it inside. Sora moved over to his desk and plopped down in the chair to better tie his sneakers. “We’re hitting the beach today? Or is that tomorrow?”

“I thought we were gonna stop by and see Kairi and the new kid and see if they wanted to come with, first,” Riku said, leaning against the door frame and watching Sora with an amused smirk. “You said you wanted to meet him. Unless you’ve changed your mind now?”

Sora brightened excitedly. “Oh yeah! I was so excited for the first day of break that I forgot about the new guy coming.” Sora took a deep breath as the scent of bacon frying wafted upstairs and exhaled happily. “Smells like Uncle Angeal got to breakfast before mom could.” He stood up, straightening his shorts and tank top. “By the time we’re done with breakfast Kairi should be awake, don’t you think?”

“She should be,” Riku agreed. “She doesn’t oversleep as much as you do.” He grinned, shaking his long hair out of his face. “Speaking of oversleeping, your mom and your uncle are up, but I didn’t see your dad yet. I guess your habits are just genetic.” He left the door to walk over to Sora, throwing an arm around Sora’s neck and ruffling his hair. There were some times when Sora’s cheerful, goofy attitude was too much for Riku to resist.

“Hey!” Sora laughed and playfully elbowed his best friend. “Just because I’m not up at five AM like some people doesn’t mean I over sleep,” he argued and freed himself from Riku’s grip before going to check his hair in the small mirror.

“You know dad takes longer in the morning than the rest of us,” Sora pointed out as he fixed his hair. “But I bet he’ll be at the table by the time we go down there. No one can resist bacon… well except for mom,” he laughed and motioned Riku to follow him as he headed downstairs.

“Morning, mom!” Sora beamed as he hopped down the last few steps and went over to kiss his mom on the cheek. 

“Good morning, baby,” she smiled and patted his cheek. Her tea was gone, replaced with a strange, gnarly-looking, green smoothie thing. “Would you like one of my chia-kale-wheat grass smoothies for breakfast?”

Riku shuddered. Sora threw Riku a well-practiced look of disgust and moved to sit down next to Zack, who had emerged from the bedroom and was waiting for food like the rest of them. “No thanks mom. I’m ready for bacon. Morning, dad.”

“Good morning, Sora,” Zack said, leaning his chair back on two legs. “Morning, Riku. How’re your mom and dad?”

“Same as always,” Riku said with a shrug. “Up with the sun and off and running. Mom said last night that she was going to call you today, though. Probably some project she just needs a second set of hands on.” Riku’s mom rarely needed any real help, but she seemed to get a kick out of getting Zack to do things for her anyway. Truth be told, Riku wasn’t sure what to make of it; sometimes it seemed like his mom was more involved with Zack than she was with his father.

“Cissnei knows I’m always happy to help her out,” Zack said, the chair teetering precariously.

Angeal looked over from the kitchen and frowned at Zack, seeing that Sora was emulating his father. “All four legs on the ground,” he said looking at both of them as he removed the bacon from the pan and started cracking eggs. 

Sora made a small grimace that he’d been caught, but slowly lowered his chair to the ground. Zack followed suit. “So Riku and I are gonna go see the new kid that Cloud adopted and see if he and Kairi want to go to the beach with us,” Sora said to change the subject and looked around at everyone. “Do you guys know anything about him?”

“No,” Aerith said shaking her head. “Cloud was very quiet about it all aside from telling us that he was going to adopt another child he hasn’t really said much.” She shrugged. “But then that’s just how Cloud is.”

“All I know is Cloud picked him up yesterday because he borrowed the truck to do so,” Angeal said, flipping eggs. “He didn’t say much again other than his name is Roxas and he wants to have Roxas settle in a bit before doing any sort of welcome thing for him,” Angeal explained, looking pointedly towards Aerith.

"We'll get a chance later," Zack agreed. "But I think it's good if you guys go meet him. Sorta like introducing him to everyone in stages instead of all at once." He glanced up at the clock on the wall, starting to tip his chair again out of habit but resettling it back on all four legs before Angeal could get annoyed. "Hey, Aerith, did you get someone else to open for you today? You're gonna be late."

Aerith glanced up at the clock as well and jumped. “Oh goodness, you’re right! Thank you, Zack.” She stood quickly and leaned over to kiss Sora on top of the head and then repeated the action with Riku and Zack. “Okay my boys; be good,” she said hurriedly as she grabbed her things and headed out the door.

Angeal chuckled as he carefully carried over four plates of bacon and eggs, setting them down on the table for everyone before taking a seat at the end of the table and digging in. He looked at the clock for a moment as well and began eating a little quicker. “I’m going to have to head out soon, too. I need to get an early start on some people for not filing their paperwork,” he said with a tired sigh.

“Careful Uncle Angeal, you’re going to start sounding like Uncle Tseng.” Sora chuckled as he hungrily dug into his breakfast.

Angeal laughed. “I don’t think I have to worry much about that,” he pointed out and looked between Sora and Riku. “I know I tell you boys this every morning, but stay out of trouble. You know I’ll be the first to hear about anything.”

"Yeah - first you, then my dad," Riku said, shaking his head. "Between the two of you and then my mom... let's just say you really don't have to remind me not to get caught." Zack snorted into his glass of milk, trying to cover the laugh with a sudden coughing fit. Riku couldn't hide the smirk that turned up one corner of his mouth.

"Definitely don't get caught," Zack agreed when he recovered, waving a piece of toast for emphasis. "I mean," he amended, glancing at Angeal. "You shouldn't be doing anything that you could get into trouble for anyway."

Angeal smirked as well. “All I’m saying, it’s great if you kids want to visit me at the station. I just prefer it not to be in a jail cell,” he said and took a large bite of egg.

“I think we’d prefer that too, Uncle Angeal,” Sora smiled and wiped up at the remaining egg on his empty plate with his toast before gobbling it down. He got up and put his plate into the dishwasher before sitting back down and staring at Riku eagerly. “Ready when you are.”

"Yeah, I think I'm good without experiencing that," Riku said, letting Sora's impatience level continue to rise. Riku ate quickly, but he wasn't a vacuum cleaner like Sora could be when he was in a hurry. "Don't be such a little kid, Sora," he teased, intentionally moving slower. It was just too fun to antagonize him.

Sora glared at Riku and rolled his eyes before grinning. “Fine,” he said with an exaggerated sigh, still grinning. He sat and waited patiently for Riku to finish but was up and out of his chair as soon as Riku went to put his dish away.

“Thanks for breakfast, Uncle Angeal. We’ll see you later,” Sora waved as he and Riku headed out.

“Be back for dinner!” Angeal called after them.

“And remember to take it easy! Don’t overdo it!” Zack chimed in before the door slammed shut.


	4. New Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very much a work of fiction. I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to their respective owners and I am definitely not making any claim on them.

For as long as Sora and Riku could remember, they had lived in houses that were just across the street from each other. When Cloud had joined their families in the area, he'd managed to purchase the house right behind Riku's. Not long after arriving, Cloud had adopted Kairi. The location of the houses was altogether convenient for three kids who were best friends.

Riku and Sora ran across the empty street and cut through the side yard of Riku's house, latching the gate behind them. Another gate in the fence led directly into Cloud's backyard. Crossing from one yard into the next was like leaving an organized spreadsheet and stepping into a jungle. Riku pushed a stray palm frond out of the way, holding the gate for Sora to pass through as well.

"We're gonna need to cut some things back again," Riku said, noticing that the offending plant was reaching more limbs in the direction of their passageway. Unlike Riku's parents, Cloud didn't put a lot of time into making his garden neat as a pin.

“Ouch,” Sora winced as he stepped on an old frond and it jumped up to slap him on the leg. “Yeah, I think we will. I know mom’s been taking care of Uncle Cloud’s yard for him, but there are times where I think she likes the natural look too much.”

The two boys walked across the yard to the sliding glass back door. Cloud was inside, sitting on the couch watching television. He waved the boys in when he saw them through the glass.

“Kairi’s just getting ready,” Cloud said, not paying them too much attention as they came inside. When he glanced up at the boys, he looked startled for a moment but turned away quickly and spoke to the wall instead. “I’ll let her introduce you two to Roxas,” Cloud said, getting up and going into the kitchen.

“Thanks, Uncle Cloud,” Sora said and plopped himself down on the couch Cloud had just vacated. Looking over his shoulder, Sora could see Cloud pacing in the kitchen through the small pass-through window set into the wall.

"That was weird," Riku commented, frowning slightly. "I wonder what's up with him."

"Sora! Riku!" Kairi grinned as she hurried into the living room. "I thought I heard your voices. Hey, Roxas!" She called back over her shoulder. "Come on, I want you to meet my best friends." She was clearly excited, turning back to Sora and Riku with the same grin still on her face. "He's a little shy at first, but he's pretty cool."

Riku laughed, shaking his head. "Are you sure you should say that, Kairi? Some people probably wouldn't like being introduced that way to people they don't know."

Roxas appeared on the stairway a moment later, playing with the zipper on his black tank top to get it to go all the way up. He managed to get it to close and moved over next to Kairi, waving a hand in greeting. “Hi,” he said with a nod and a tight-lipped smile.

“Hi, I’m Sora!” Sora grinned and reached out a hand to shake Roxas’. As the boys clasped hands, Sora tilted his head curiously. “You know, you look a lot like a guy in my history and English classes.”  
"And my algebra class," Riku added. "I'm Riku, by the way." He waved slightly, not joining Sora in his enthusiasm. "Nice to meet you."

"You're right!" Kairi exclaimed. "I'd thought he looked familiar, but I thought maybe I was just being silly. Let me get my yearbook!" She dashed back upstairs, returning a moment later with the book in her hands.  
She flipped through it as she came back down, making a small noise of triumph and holding the open pages out to Roxas. "You look just like him!"

Roxas froze, wide-eyed, when Sora and Riku said he looked familiar. When Kairi returned with the yearbook he took it almost nervously and licked his lips as he scanned the page. All the breath seemed to leave him and he slumped slightly, looking relieved and sad all at the same time. “Huh, so Ventus never left here,” he said softly with a half-smile. “Yeah, Ventus is my twin brother. We got separated by the system when we were about five or so and I haven’t seen him since.”

“Whoa, that’s pretty serious. You haven’t seen your brother for over ten years?” Sora asked, almost not able to fathom the concept of being away from family for a couple of days, let alone years.  
"Well, looks like you have that chance for a reunion now," Riku pointed out. "It's not really that big of a school; you're bound to run into him eventually. If nothing else, you'll probably bump into his older sister or brother and they'll think you're him."

"Oh! Right," Kairi said, pointing over Roxas' shoulder to the other two pictures next to Ventus'. "Aqua and Terra."

“He’s got a family?” Roxas said absently, looking at the pictures of the two older students next to Ventus’ picture. “Do you guys know where he lives?” He asked, looking up at the other three.

Sora grimaced apologetically. “I don’t, but like Riku said. I’d be surprised if you didn’t run into him at school. But maybe tomorrow we can ask Tidus or Wakka? Oh! Selphie might know!”

“I can call her,” Kairi offered, pulling out her cell phone. “Selphie’s great at knowing all kinds of things. She’s a really good person and one of my best friends, but try not to tell her anything important. She’s a terrible gossip.”

“I guess. She’ll probably end up inviting herself to join us down at the beach. Not that we own it or anything, but…” Riku sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah… maybe you can give Selphie a call later?” Sora said, agreeing with Riku. “I mean I thought we were going to go skim boarding and I really don’t want to have her laughing at me about it and then telling everyone.” 

“What’s skim boarding?” Roxas asked, temporarily distracted. He closed the book and handed it back to Kairi.

“It’s awesome!” Sora grinned, pumping his fists. “There is this little board about this big,” he said holding his arms about three feet apart. “You put it down on the wet sand, and then run and hop on it and skim along the beach as the waves come in. It’s one of the only things that Riku and I have been able to do activity wise,” he shrugged.

“Why’s that?” Roxas asked looking between Riku and Sora.

“We were… out of it for a while,” Riku said. It was a massive understatement. Kairi snorted indignantly.

“Seriously, Riku? ‘Out of it for a while’ - are you trying to be funny?” She huffed, irritated. She turned to Roxas, throwing a glare out of the corner of her eyes at Riku. “About a year ago there was a really bad storm, like a typhoon. Those two geniuses were out on the island and decided that instead of taking shelter in the cave or something they were going to try to take their boat back home.” She blew a puff of air up into her bangs, still sounding upset, but the anger in her voice was offset by the fear in her eyes.

“It seemed like the storm was farther away than it really was,” Riku said, shifting his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “Long story short, we got banged around and ended up with both of us in comas for a couple of weeks. The rehab was the longest part of it.”

“Yep,” Sora nodded in agreement. “So we feel fine and ready to be active but the parents aren’t so ready for us to be active.” Sora huffed as well and ran a hand through his spikey hair. “And just when I was going to be able to join the Blitz team with Tidus and Wakka.”

Roxas looked at Riku and Sora, somewhat impressed. Foster life was pretty terrible, but he’d never been in a near death situation. “That’s rough,” he said lamely.

“Hey guys,” Cloud said, finally coming out of the kitchen. “I’m going to be out in the shed most of the day working on my bike. Call my cell if you need me,” he said, grabbing his keys and heading out in the direction of a large, metal garage-like building behind the house.

Roxas went to wave goodbye, but Cloud was already gone. “Is he always like that?” He asked, laughing nervously.

“Sometimes he’s better than others,” Kairi admitted. “He’s all worked up over something again. I’ll bug him about it after dinner tonight.”

“Let’s go hit the beach,” Riku suggested. “You got trunks, Roxas?”


	5. Hitting the Beach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very much a work of fiction. I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to their respective owners and I am definitely not making any claim on them.

With all of them ready for the beach, the group headed through the back yard and passed by a large garage building. The sound of heavy machinery grinding could be heard inside, but the three other kids didn’t at all seem interested and were talking about the different tricks they wanted to try out on the beach. Well, at least Sora was.

“So is this where Cloud is working on his bike?” Roxas asked curiously, looking at the building as they walked past it.

“Huh?” Sora looked over at the building and nodded as they walked past it. “Yeah, it’s where all of our parents have their tools and stuff. We’re not actually allowed in there - though I followed my dad in once when I was little and I remember seeing a bunch of really cool swords and stuff.”

“My parents don’t bother with it very much,” Riku said with a smirk. “They just keep their guns under their pillows instead.”

“Your parents are kinda scary sometimes, Riku,” Kairi said, hopping over the line where the grass met the road. “Dad mostly just goes in there to tune up his bike whether it needs it or not: Nothing to do with this crazy talk of weapons or guns or stuff.”

Riku rolled his eyes and glanced over his shoulder at the garage building as they headed across the road. “There’s a lot more to all of them then they’re willing to tell us, but asking will get you nowhere.”  
Roxas shifted the board under his arm as they neared the beach, eyeing the group of them. “Wait wait, so all of your parents carry around weapons?”

“Not in my house,” Sora amended. “Just in the shed. I remember seeing a big giant rack of swords and not small ones either. At the time most of them were at least double my size.” He looked at Kairi and Riku. “Remember I wasn’t supposed to have followed Dad and I got in major trouble for it and we all got lectured about the shed?”

“Actually, I’d kind of be surprised if my dad doesn’t always have a gun on him somewhere,” Riku said, shrugging. “It’s just kinda the way he is; paranoid, you know?”

“I remember that lecture,” Kairi said quickly, trying to shush Riku with an elbow to the ribs. “Long, long story short, we aren’t allowed in the shed and if we break that rule we’ll be in worse trouble than we can even begin to imagine.”

“Riiight, and I’m going to guess that rule applies to me too?’ Roxas asked. 

“Yeah, probably,” Sora shrugged. “I mean I don’t see why it wouldn’t apply to you.”

They reached the end of the road. Just beyond the small fence there, the beach laid out before them. The water perfectly reflected the blue sky and the waves lapped at the shore. In the distance, Roxas could see an island with what looked like a giant wooden fort built on it. 

Sora grinned widely, seeing the water and whooped, running ahead of everyone towards it. He threw the board to the ground and hopped on it, skidding along the surf for a few grand seconds before his feet flew out from underneath him. He landed on his back in the water right as a wave crashed over him.

“See, when he does it, it just looks goofy,” Riku said, laughing. “Let me show you how it’s done!” He ran after Sora to the water, throwing down his board at the last minute and skimming out into the waves. He lasted slightly longer than Sora before crashing down into the sea, but even he wasn’t immune to the whims of the waves.

“Boys,” Kairi said, loading an entire monologue into the single word. “Are you as competitive as they are?” she asked Roxas, choosing to walk down onto the sand.

Roxas shrugged, walking with her. He certainly wasn’t going to lie. “Yeah, pretty much. But I like to think that I’m not suicidal by just running in and thinking that I’ll be able to do it,” he grinned and chuckled, watching Sora and Riku take another couple cracks at the waves with nearly the same results. They did really look like they were having fun. 

“You gonna go too?” He asked, propping the board he carried against his leg.

“Yeah, I will. I don’t want to run off and leave you all alone, though. We are planning to teach you, after all.” Kairi grinned, holding her board out in front of her. “You okay if I go out and kick their butts and send them back to shore?”

He laughed and saluted her. “Looking forward to it.”

Kairi threw her board out in front of her as she ran and gracefully leapt onto it, skimming along the surf without falling on her ass like the boys had done just before. Roxas had to laugh at Sora and Riku’s faces. This just looked like too much fun.

“Okay guys watch out, I’m coming through!” He yelled and ran at them, throwing down the board as he’d seen them do. Roxas felt pretty proud of himself that he actually stayed on the board; it was just too bad the feeling only lasted a few seconds before he was on his back like the others had been.

Roxas did improve gradually over the next couple of hours as the four of them coasted and skidded their way along the shoreline. Roxas slowly felt himself becoming more comfortable with his new family. He found that there was nearly nothing that could keep Sora down, at least not for long. Riku… well, Roxas hadn’t quite figured out Riku yet, except that Kairi had been right in that Riku and Sora were joined at the hip. Riku didn’t say much, but Roxas got the feeling that it wasn’t because he didn’t have a lot to say, but had more to do with not being comfortable with Roxas yet. Kairi seemed to have accepted Roxas with no question and Roxas definitely felt comfortable around her. The dynamic that Kairi, Sora, and Riku had together was nothing like Roxas had ever seen before and he was honestly a little bit jealous of it.  
“Hey you guys!” The wild shout from the shore made Riku crash into the wave he’d been riding. The shout had originated from a girl who was running down the beach toward them. She was followed by two boys. All three stopped at the edge of the water, the girl waving both of her arms to get their attention.

“Heyyy! Kairi, you should’ve called me!” Selphie shouted, propping her hands on her hips. “I thought we were gonna hang out during break!”

“Heey!” Kairi grinned and waved back. “And it’s only the first day of break!” She laughed as the two girls hugged. “I didn’t think you meant that we’d hang out the entire break. “

Roxas looked over at Sora and Riku, who were wincing slightly and trying to hide it. “I take it that’s Selphie,” he said, grinning at their apparent discomfort.

“Yeah,” Sora chuckled and blushed, realizing that he’d been caught making a face. “She’s okay and pretty fun. She just talks constantly.”

“Yeah, that’s totally what it is,” Riku muttered, ruffling his wet hair to get it out of his eyes.

“Hey guys!” The two boys with Selphie called, walking towards Sora, Riku, and Roxas. They seemed kind of familiar to Roxas but he couldn’t quite place it.

“You guys went skim boarding and didn’t call us?” The blond grinned and playfully hit at Sora. “You know Wakka and I are always up for that.” He looked over at Roxas and frowned a little. “Who’s this?”

“We left earlier than you’d be awake, and you know phones and water aren’t a good combination,” Riku said with the air of someone pointing out the obvious. “He’s a new friend of ours. Didn’t your parents teach you to introduce yourself first?”

“Huh? Oh, sure,” Wakka shrugged, tucking the white and blue Blitzball he carried under his arm. “I’m Wakka; that’s Tidus. You go to our school, don’t ya?”

“Nope,” Roxas said as he recognized the two of them. He’d been on the Twilight Town Blitz team and played against these two more than a few times. There was a definite rivalry between the two teams, even though they’d only played each other a few times at the regional level.

“Yeah, this is Roxas. He just moved here from Twilight Town; he’s living with Kairi and Uncle Cloud,” Sora explained. “His twin brother goes to our school through. Do you guys know him? Ventus?”

Tidus continued to study Roxas dubiously and nodded. “Yeah, Ventus is in my science class. He’s kind of quiet and kind of a nerd. No offense. But that’s all I know about him.” Tidus shrugged. “Maybe that’s why you seem familiar.”

“Wait, no, that’s not it. You play Blitz, ya?” Wakka asked, tossing the ball to Roxas. “I remember you and that jerk Seifer.”

Riku shared a glance with Sora. This wasn’t going to end well. “You guys didn’t bring your boards. Just come out to enjoy the beach or what?” he tried, though he was as ignored as he expected to be.  
“Yeah I play,” Roxas frowned and caught the ball, quickly throwing it back to Wakka. “Seifer might not be the nicest guy but he’s not a jerk!” Okay, Roxas wasn’t really kidding anyone, Seifer could totally be a jerk but that wasn’t their call. They hardly knew him; they didn’t know what he went through. 

“No, he really is a jerk,” Selphie said, looking over at them. “I went to school with him for a while. So are you guys friends?” She left Kairi’s side to skip closer to the boys. “How come you and Ventus went to different schools? Are you going to try to join the Blitzball team here or would Seifer try to take you out if you played against him?”

Roxas took a step back as Selphie got too close to his personal space. Man, Sora was right that this girl talked a lot. “What’s it to you? I probably know Seifer better than you do and I say he’s not a jerk. It doesn’t matter if I play against him or not.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Tidus scoffed crossing his arms. “It doesn’t matter because if it were my call you wouldn’t play. We can’t have an enemy on our team. Right, Wakka?”

“I dunno, man. Depends on if he can play or not, ya? Last I remember Seifer was the only decent player on the Twilight Town team.” Wakka said, idly tossing the ball from hand to hand.

“Okay you guys, that’s enough,” Riku said, physically taking Selphie by the shoulders and marching her away from Roxas. He put himself between Roxas and the other three. “It’s just a dumb game – and we’re on break anyway. Can’t you just get over it?”

Spoken like someone who wasn’t a player. Roxas glared at Wakka and Tidus from over Riku’s shoulder. It was really only the surprise that Riku put himself between them that kept Roxas from continuing the argument.

Kairi and Sora joined him. “Yeah guys, geez,” Sora said, looking disappointed in his friends. “I don’t think this is really the best way to show the new guy that he’s welcome. Come on; we’re better than this.”

“Nah,” Roxas said. “It’s honestly about what I expected, at least to some degree. And they’ll see that it wasn’t Seifer who was the only decent player there when practice starts up again.” If they were going to be staying, then Roxas knew that he didn’t want to be there anymore.

“Hey Kairi, I’m gonna head back home. I think I’ve had enough for today and I need to do some laundry,” Roxas said, backing away from the group.

Kairi turned to look at Roxas; the concern in her eyes was evident. “Are you sure? I can go back with you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Roxas said and nodded, looking over at Riku and Sora. “I’ll see you guys later.” Right now what he needed more than anything was to be alone or with his actual friends, and only one of those was available to him.


	6. Unpacking Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very much a work of fiction. I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to their respective owners and I am definitely not making any claim on them.

It hadn’t been the plan to get upset and stalk off like some kid, but Roxas found himself alone, walking back to the house. The anger he felt over the comments that Wakka and Tidus made quickly ebbed away leaving him feeling suddenly silly and immature. He stopped near the large shed, running a hand through his hair and feeling like a complete and utter jerk. It was normal sports banter: he, Hayner, and Seifer did it all the time. Roxas knew that he shouldn’t have let it get to him, but Roxas was still on new ground and automatically went on the defensive. Maybe Kairi would be able to smooth things over for him later.  
Thinking about Kairi tugged at the back of Roxas’ memory, like he had forgotten something very important involving her. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his swim trunks and groaned in frustration as the realization hit him: Kairi had the keys to the house.

There were still sounds of work coming from the large shed where Cloud had said he’d be. Roxas figured he could get keys from him instead of having to make a walk of shame back to the beach. Disregarding the warnings from Kairi, Sora, and Riku, Roxas walked around the shed toward the door on the side and knocked loudly. The door there was a fairly standard model with a window set into it, but the window was covered to keep anyone from looking in.

The sound of machinery inside the building stopped, or at least quieted. Roxas thought he saw brief movement in the window curtain before the door opened, and Roxas had to take an involuntary step back when Cloud was not the one who answered it.

The man who stood in the doorway was tall, stern, and more than a little foreboding. He was dressed in a crisp black suit and tie and his black hair was slicked straight back from his forehead without even a single strand out of place. He looked down at Roxas with a frown that made the teenager take another step back.

“Cloud, it’s one of yours,” the man said loudly, not taking his eyes off Roxas. Roxas looked away from him to glance into the shed. It wasn’t really that much of a shed; it was really more like a large garage. There were racks of tools and automotive equipment, tool boxes, and other things one expected to see in a garage.

Cloud appeared around the corner of the door frame, his hands dirty with motor oil. He looked concerned but annoyed, though from what Roxas could tell most of the annoyance was focused at the dark haired man in front of him. “Yeah, this is Roxas,” Cloud said as he joined them at the doorway, cutting off of Roxas’ view of the inside. “I thought you went to the beach with the others?”

Roxas winced and looked away from Cloud, feeling even more embarrassed than he had before. “Yeah, I wasn’t feeling so great so I decided to come back, but I forgot to get the key from Kairi."

"Oh, Cloud - I've still got your spare key from the other day." It was a woman's voice, despite the owner not being visible thanks to the two men who blocked the door. "All right you two, budge over. And Tseng, stop glowering - being intimidating isn't part of your job description anymore, remember?"

The woman who had spoken was just moving a pair of yellow safety goggles to perch precariously on top of her head, nudging the two men out of her way with her free hand. Roxas had never met her before, but her smile was familiar. "Hi, Roxas. I'm Cissnei; Riku's mom. Are you hurt anywhere? Stomachache?"

Roxas glanced between Cissnei and the man she referred to as Tseng - who was probably the same one that Sora called ‘Uncle Tseng’ and thus Riku’s father. Roxas could see where Cissnei was Riku’s mother; they had the same mouth and chin, even though she looked way younger than he thought a mom would be. Apart from the glower, Roxas would have never guessed that Tseng and Riku were related. He glanced up at Cloud and then down at the ground before looking at Cissnei and shaking his head.

“No, I’m not hurt and no stomachache,” Roxas assured her. “I just started feeling tired out and I still have unpacking to do, so… I thought I would head back.” He put on a wary smile at his lie. Roxas hoped it came off more as being shy rather than not wanting to tell the truth that he’d made a fool of himself.

Cloud raised an eyebrow at Roxas but didn’t question him. “If you’ve got the key, Cissnei,” he said with a shrug, looking over at her. From what Roxas could tell, Cloud seemed far more relaxed and comfortable around Riku’s mom than Riku’s dad. Though if this Tseng guy was always like this Roxas couldn’t blame Cloud one bit for it.

Tseng had moved back from the doorway, but he stood behind the other two with his arms crossed as if he were guarding the place. It didn’t seem like he’d taken his eyes off of Roxas from the moment he opened the door. Roxas found himself thinking back to Riku’s comment that his parents probably always had a gun on them somewhere; seeing Riku’s dad, Roxas could totally believe it. He also had a feeling that they knew that he had lied: He wasn’t quite sure how, but at least they didn’t seem overly bothered by it. Nobody was pulling out a supposed gun or anything.

"Yeah, I've got it right here." Cissnei pulled a ring of keys out of the pocket of her jeans and twisted one of the keys off. "Get some rest, Roxas. And if you ever have any questions you think you can't ask this grumpy Gus," she added, elbowing Cloud before holding the key out to Roxas. "You can always come to me. I've gotten pretty good at this 'mom' thing over the years, I think."

Cloud gave Cissnei a somewhat hurt look and nodded at Roxas. “If you need anything, we’ll be here for a while longer. Just knock like you did” he said, leaving Roxas and the doorway behind as his attention clearly shifted back to what they had been working on.

“Thanks for the key and just... thanks,” Roxas said with a nod, not sure if there was anything else to really say. “I’ll try to keep all of that in mind.” With the key in hand, Roxas started taking little steps away from the door. “It was nice meeting you,” he said, remembering at least some of his manners before turning and jogging the rest of the way home.

Roxas left the key on the kitchen counter before going upstairs to his room two steps at a time. It wasn’t until he was in his room and took a deep breath that he felt himself begin to relax. He hadn’t been completely lying; he did still need to unpack. The most he’d done last night was shower, undress, and fall into bed.

All of his belongings fit into three regular sized suitcases - and only one of those had clothes in it. It wasn’t much, but they were his things and when you didn’t have much to begin with there was a lot of value in what you had.  
As soon as he picked up the first bag, Roxas had a feeling, just from the weight of it, that it was his books. They were a random assortment of things he’d collected over the years; novels, notebooks, and random papers all spilled out of the suitcase as he dug down to expose a large, extremely old looking hardback book at the bottom of the bag.

Roxas pulled out the ancient tome and set it down reverently on his bed. He carefully opened the cover to reveal the book’s secret: It had been hollowed out by someone. Roxas had no idea who had removed the middle of the book, but he had filled the inside with seashells of all different sizes, kinds, and colors and a couple of faded Polaroid photographs.

It was from his first home after he’d been taken from the island as a child. Roxas honestly couldn’t remember a lot of from when he was that small, just vague images and feelings. He remembered that they’d been a nice family with a little girl his age named Xion, and the two children had bonded over the colorful gifts from the sea. There wasn’t much more than that; just the dark haired girl’s smiling face and the impression of being really happy. Roxas had proof that he had been happy: The photos in the bottom of the book were of two little kids, grinning widely at the camera that they played with. He still had that beat up old camera and took pictures at every home he went to and with his friends all the time.

Roxas sighed and picked up a couple of the seashells, examining them closely for damage. Just holding them in his hands helped to calm Roxas and make him feel more settled. He carefully took a handful of the shells and placed them one by one along the edge of his headboard.

There was one shell that was smashed in the bottom of the book, which wiped the calmness off Roxas’ face. It had been a great home, almost perfect in fact, but then bad things happened. He sighed as he carefully pieced together the broken shell. Xion had gotten sick - or had always been sick, Roxas wasn’t sure. Either way, Roxas had been sent back to the foster house and learned later that Xion had died.  
He put the broken pieces back into the book and closed it up, finding a place to put it on a set of shelves in the room before starting to put away the other books from the bag. That really had just been the first of many temporary housing situations Roxas had found himself in over the years he’d spent in Twilight Town. He at least had never been moved too far, which meant that he made friends and gotten to keep them. Hayner, Pence and Olette were the ones who stuck with him the longest - and, oddly enough, Seifer had as well.

From the clutter of papers, Roxas picked up an awkward pile of photographs of him and his friends as they’d grown up. It was strange that he’d known them all for as long as he had; Seifer especially.  
Seifer was an orphan just like Roxas, and somehow the two of them had always ended up in the same foster house: Every single time. They fought like cats and dogs in the beginning, but had eventually come to an understanding with each other. At least privately; once they were at school or anywhere that wasn’t the foster house, all bets were off. But they were there for each other when it mattered the most, even if Seifer had a strange way of showing it.

Roxas thought back to the week earlier, boggling slightly that it had only been a week since he got the letter telling him that he’d been adopted. Seifer had been the first one there when he got the news, getting righteously pissed off at Roxas’ case worker for just dumping the change on him and then getting more pissed off that he’d have to replace Roxas on the blitz team.

“You’re seriously going to leave me with that little chicken shit Zell as the only person to replace you? Fucking hell Roxas; that’s not cool.”

Roxas chuckled in spite of himself as he shuffled through a few pics of the blitz team; Seifer always did have his own priorities. Still, Seifer was there when his other friends weren’t. Roxas took one of the pictures of him and Seifer and pinned it on the cork board that was hanging on the wall. In the back of his mind he made a note to himself to thank Cloud or Kairi later for having it in his room.

He pinned up some other pictures of himself as he was growing up with different friends that he'd had; most of them he didn’t know anymore or they weren’t friends anymore. He paused and swallowed thickly as he reached the picture that was of his best friends from Twilight Town.

The smiling faces of Hayner, Ollette, Pence, and himself were all cramped together awkwardly to fit into the photo. He had to laugh, thinking back at the memory. It had been last summer when they had all desperately tried to save money to go to the beach together before school started back up. Of course the trip never happened, but he remembered them having fun just trying to get the funds together.  
It was at least a lot more fun than having to tell him that he was leaving. They’d all of course been upset, but Hayner most of all. Roxas couldn’t quite understand the way Hayner acted. It was like he thought that getting adopted and having to move away was all Roxas’ fault.

From the moment Roxas told them he was leaving, Hayner had acted like Roxas didn’t exist. Roxas picked up the several pictures of himself and Hayner, flipping through them thoughtfully before putting them back down on the dresser. His chest ached and he felt a little sick thinking about Hayner; they had been best friends for a while and Roxas knew just what Hayner was doing: He was pushing Roxas away to get away from the pain, burning his bridges so he didn’t have to look back at them. Roxas had seen Hayner do it lots of times with people he felt betrayed him.

Roxas heaved a sigh and pinned the pictures of himself and Hayner up with the others, followed by more pictures of the blitz team that had been taken before he left. At least the rest of the team had taken the news better than Hayner had. Roxas had a blitzball they'd all signed for him in one of his other bags.

Thinking of the blitzball, Roxas went over to the other suitcases and popped them both open. One was understandably full of clothes, but the other was full of just random objects including the blue and white bumpy ball covered in scribbled signatures. Picking up the ball and a trophy from the last tournament the team won, Roxas put them on the dresser next to the corkboard and nodded, satisfied with the placement. He grabbed a yellow star fruit pillow from the bag next and threw it on the bed, then paused to quickly re-arrange it in a proper place of honor.

He dug through the rest of the suitcase , emptying it of the odds and ends that he treasured and piling them up on the desk to be sorted. Roxas glanced at the blitzball and sighed heavily as he cracked open the last suitcase and tossed his shirts, unfolded, into the dresser drawers. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone off on Tidus and Wakka; if he pissed them off enough they might not let him on the team, or even if they did they wouldn’t make it easy on him.

Maybe it would be best if he didn’t play at all. Roxas couldn’t really imagine playing against his old team and he knew that if he played they would eventually have to face off. The thought of not playing, though, made Roxas feel anxious and angry. He frowned, growling in frustration as he tried to stuff all of his shirts into one drawer.

“You have other drawers, you know,” Kairi said with a chuckle from his doorway. Sora and Riku were right behind her, looking over her head into Roxas’ room.

“Huh, this used to be where Riku and I would sleep when we stayed over,” Sora explained with a smile as he went into the room uninvited and opened up the closet to poke his head inside. “Yep, the stain from the night we ate all that chocolate and I got sick is still there.” He grinned as he turned back to the others and blushed faintly at the look of disgust on Roxas’ face. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly and rubbed his neck.

"I shouldn't be surprised by you anymore," Riku said with a small shake of his head. "But really, Sora? That's the story you decide to open with?" He stayed by the door, arms crossed over his chest. In some ways he reminded Roxas of Seifer, but less obnoxious.

Sora just shrugged and grinned in response as he moved over to stand next to Riku and lean against him. Kairi grinned at the two of them and turned towards Roxas with a knowing grin, rolling her eyes in Sora and Riku’s direction before she moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “I think he does some of it just to get a reaction out of you, Riku,” Kairi pointed out and looked back at Roxas. “We wanted to make sure you were okay - and the tide is in until later this afternoon so we figured it was a good break for lunch.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Roxas mumbled and shrugged, trying again to push the drawer closed. After a brief struggle, he finally gave up and pulled out a wad of shirts to stuff into another drawer. He glanced between the other three and took a deep breath. It wouldn’t help anything if he didn’t try talking to them, especially since it looked like he’d be there for a while. “It’s just always a little difficult right after a move. There’s like this settling in point that you have to reach…” He said, trailing off and reaching over to roll his blitzball back and forth on the dresser. “And until you do reach it, things just feel… off.”

Sora walked over to Roxas’ desk, carefully examining the pile of shiny, random things that had been laid out there. He picked things up, examined them and put them back down. “I think that’s understandable,” he said, looking over at Roxas with an infectious smile. “I’ve lived in the same house my entire life. The concept of moving,” he paused and shook his head, the smile drooping a little. “I can’t quite imagine it.”

“Yeah, well you’ve got families so it’s not something you would have to worry about is it?” Roxas said, trying not to sound as bitter about it as he felt. Kairi gave him a concerned look, but he shook his head and forced a smile. “Sorry. Like I said; still not quite settled yet.”

“And we totally get that, man,” Sora smiled as he picked up a small, silver, rectangular box and turned it over in his hands. It had a lid that he flipped open, displaying the workings of a lighter. As he closed the lid again, Sora noticed an engraving on the other side; a diamond-shaped emblem with strange, hashtag-like markings and the words ‘Shinra Electric Power Company’ underneath it. It struck a strange cord with Sora. He frowned, studying the emblem closely and getting the oddest feeling of déjà vu.

"What've you got there, Sora?" Riku asked, noticing how Sora had suddenly gone quiet. "A lighter?" He didn't leave his place by the door, but there was a certain amount of tension about him. His attention was fixed on Sora and had sharpened considerably in just a manner of seconds.

Roxas looked over at the two of them, distracted by Riku’s sudden intentness. He gave Kairi a significant look and chuckled: She really wasn’t kidding about those two. “Yeah, it’s something I got last summer,” he explained and sat down in his desk chair. “My friends and I were at a festival trying to light some sparklers and it wasn’t working. So this random guy, who totally looked like some sort of mob hit man, came over and handed me that lighter.” Roxas grinned at the memory. “But when we went to give it back, the guy was gone. So I kept it,” he said with a shrug.

“That’s cool,” Sora said and smiled at Roxas. “And nice of the guy. The logo on it looks really familiar though. Like I’ve seen it somewhere before.” He walked over to Riku and handed him the lighter. “Does it look familiar to you?”

Tilting back in his chair back on two legs, Roxas watched the other two boys with his hands cushioned casually behind his head. “There’s an insurance company on the mainland called Shinra, but I’ve never heard of an electrical company.”

Kairi pursed her lips thoughtfully as she looked between Sora and Riku. “Do you think it could be from where you’re parents lived before?” she asked. “I mean, you two weren’t born here right?”

"That's kind of a leap, don't you think?" Riku took the lighter from Sora, running his thumb over the embossed symbol. "I mean, yeah it's familiar, but it could be that we've just seen billboards or something from the bus during a school trip." He handed the device back to Sora and shook his head. "Who knows."

“Can you toss it here?” Roxas asked, holding out his hands and putting the chair back onto the floor. “I want to make sure it still works.” Sora nodded and tossed the lighter to Roxas who caught it with only minor fumbling. Roxas flipped open the top, ran his thumb along the geared striker, and was rewarded with a bright flame. “Cool, it does still work.”

“Is there a reason that you need a lighter?” Cloud asked sternly, appearing in the doorway with a large cardboard box tucked under his arm.

The lighter was quickly flipped closed as Roxas sat straight up. “Uh, no?”

“There will be no drugs or smoking done in this house, or by anyone living in this house,” Cloud said, giving all the kids significant looks as he walked into the room and put the box down on Roxas’ desk.

“I don’t do anything like that,” Roxas assured him with a smirk. “I couldn’t afford to even if I wanted to.”

Cloud huffed in response, the corner of his mouth tilting upwards in almost a smile. “Alright, then just don’t burn down the place down.” He put his hand on the cardboard box. “I figured with school you’d need a computer.”

“Excellent idea, dad,” Kairi said, getting up off the bed as the momentary tension fled the room. “That way Roxas and I don’t have to share one. Now, how about we get some lunch together before you escape back into the shed?”

“I’ll be down in a moment,” Roxas said, looking at the box in awe and running his hand along it. “I just want to see about setting this up,” he said with an eager grin.

“Oh no,” Kairi chuckled. “If you’re like I was when I got mine you’ll be a few hours. Food first.” She grabbed Roxas’ arm before he could fully wrap his head around the gift and dragged him and the other boys downstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I understand where some of you might be upset that I killed off Xion, and that's totally legit and an okay feeling to have. She was one of the re-writes that I'd gone through a couple of times. In the games she is an important part of Roxas' life in the Organization even if he lost the memory of her and I wanted her to be important to him in this universe as well. Unfortunately, looking through the overarching outline that was made for this story, I couldn't legitimately find a place for her at the school or in their current setting that didn't feel horribly shoe-horned in and she deserves better than that. :\

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I will post more of this series. It really depends on how things go with the rest of the scenes that are being worked on, if I have the co-writer's permission and if people seem to like this. This all was written for personal fun and it is being posted on a whim.


End file.
